Meet the Cavegirls at the Market

 

Great news! The Northwest Cavegirls have a spot at the Woodinville Farmer's Market on Saturdays during the summer! Come out and meet the Cavegirls, sample a few of our yummy baked treats like Chocolate Chip cookies, Blueberry Muffins, Coconut Muffins, and Almond Raisin Scones, then buy some to take home for later. The market is open from 10am - 4pm at 133rd Ave. NE in Woodinville, WA  next to the Carol Edwards Center.

Coconut muffins ready to go to the market!

Our first sale!

yes, those are chocolate chip cookies on a stick!

To prepare for the upcoming market, the Cavegirls have been baking like crazy people. We've totally worn ourselves out. So if you stop by the booth and we're sleeping on the job, just give us a nudge and wave money at us. We're sure to perk up at that! :) Hope to see you all at the Woodinville Farmer's Market this Saturday (June 29th) or another Saturday this summer!

Great Day at the Farmer's Market

HUGE SUCCESS!

Wow, wish you could've been there, maybe you were :) We never really anticipated that we'd have such a warm welcome from the market vendors and great public reaction and appreciation.

Cavegirl Angie and I talked the talk, shared some Paleo love and sold ALL but a handful of our baked goodies. We were AMAZED and we had such a fun day!!

Our favorite lines were...

"HI, would you like to try a sample?"
OH no sorry I really can't I'm...
"OH, I bet you can, we're all grain free, dairy free and refined sugar free!"
"REALLY?!!, how great!"
(sample tried, goods bought, relationships built - happy smiley customers - happy smiley Cavegirls)
"See you next week!"

This happened over and over again! We were astounded that so many folks out there are either gluten intolerant or are just avoiding grains, dairy and sugar to be health conscious like us!

Our cookies ALL sold within the first few hours, so we plan to mass bake those for next week :) We even sold our cookbooks :)

We have a great location, right next door to the Woodinville Farmer's Market Information Booth.

You can also pre-order goods from our "ORDER PRODUCTS" page HERE for pick up at Woodinville Farmer's Market. If you live local we can also arrange delivery or a mutual pick up point. 

Please come by and see us next week. The weather should be a little cooler and the weekend a long one for most. We are very excited to do it all again :)

Here are a few more photos for your enjoyment that captured our first ever Woodinville Farmer's Market Paleo Bake Sale...

Even Cavegranny Sue was there to support us :)

Paleo Camping Menu

Through Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts my family has really gotten into camping this past year. We love being outside without all of the distractions of electronic devices and to-do lists that always seem to take precedence when we're at home. We're also aspiring survivalists and are always looking into how to do things in a more primitive way without all of the "right" equipment. Camping fulfills all of those criteria, and it's just plain fun.

One of the minor obstacles I've run into while planning a camping trip is coming up with a paleo and kid-friendly menu that can be prepared over a campfire, camp stove or charcoal. The last camping trip we went on with some other Girl Scout families really allowed me to hone the Paleo camping menu with the help of some other gluten-free parents. I believe the menu we settled on is a very do-able, kid-friendly, allergy friendly Paleo menu that we'll probably use again when the need arises.

We arrived at the campsite on Friday evening and stayed through Sunday mid morning. So, we needed 2 breakfasts, 1 lunch, 1 dinner and 1 evening snack (for Friday night campfire). This is what we ate on our trip.

Friday evening
Banana Boats - Banana filled with dairy free chocolate chips, wrapped in foil and warmed in the coals of the campfire

Saturday
Breakfast
Omelets in a bag - Fill zip lock bag with eggs, veggies, meats, cheese, then seal and drop into boiling water to cook. When egg pulls away from bag, it's cooked.
Sausage cooked over a camp stove
Fruit salad
Coffee cake cooked in the Dutch oven with charcoal briquettes

Lunch
Make your own sandwich or salad - variety of meat, cheese, veggies
Left over fruit salad

Dinner
Sausage or hot dogs cooked on sticks over the fire - wrapped in romaine leaves instead of a bun
Trout caught that day - wrapped in foil with some salt, pepper and olive oil then cooked in the coals
Sweet Potatoes - wrapped in foil and cooked in coals - served with cinnamon
Pumpkin Cupcakes and chocolate chip cupcakes cooked in box ovens

Sunday
Breakfast
Applesauce Almond Pancakes cooked over a camp stove
sausage cooked over camp stove
left over fruit salad

Grilled Eggplant with Garlic and Walnut Oil

An eggplant came in my veggie box the other day...I really have no idea what to do with an eggplant. So, I decided to wing it. :) That's what I do.

You can never go wrong with garlic and oil, really. So, I sliced my eggplant into 1/2 inch strips and marinated it in some walnut oil and crushed garlic for about 1/2 hour. I, then, grilled the strips for about 5 minutes per side and served with this amazing pesto to which I'm now addicted.

If you've never tried eggplant, give it a try. You may find it's one of your new favorites.

Grilled Eggplant with Garlic and Walnut Oil
1 Eggplant sliced into 1/2 inch strips
1 t crushed garlic
1+ C olive or walnut oil

Mix oil and garlic in a shallow wide dish. Let sit for a few minutes then add strips of eggplant coating both sides. Let eggplant marinate for about 30 minutes. Place eggplant strips on a grill over medium heat. Grill for about 5 minutes per side or until flesh is fairly soft. Serve warm with pesto...or without. :)

Spinach and Walnut Pesto

What do you think of pesto? I've never been much of a pesto person and hadn't made pesto at all until yesterday. Boy, have I been missing out! I had some cilantro, spinach and garlic in my veggie box this week, and decided I'd give pesto a go. One recipe I found for making basil pesto used a mortar and pestle to crush everything together, but I don't have a mortar and pestle, and like to use power tools for heavy duty mixing like this. So I fired up my blender to get everything mixed together well.

I had planned to make hamburgers for dinner last night and thought a pesto topping would go well with the yummy grass-fed beef I had on my grill. I've also eaten it as a dip for steak and eggplant. Although the kids wouldn't touch the green goodness that was pesto, Hubby loved it and kept finding more things to top with it. So, this goes in the keeper file!

Spinach and Walnut Pesto
1 Bunch of spinach (about 2 C)
1/2 C fresh cilantro
1 C walnuts
1/4 C lemon juice
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 C olive or walnut oil
extra oil as needed

Trim stems from spinach and cilantro. In a blender or food processor add all ingredients except the extra oil. Pulse and push down the spinach to get everything incorporated adding extra oil as needed to lubricate the mixture. Serve on just about everything!

Sauteed Broccoli, Radishes and Scallions

I've never been a huge radish fan. I usually grow them in my garden because they are so fast to mature and easy to start, but they've never really been my favorite veggie. The spiciness of a raw radish is just too much for me. Even in salad or with dip, it's just too much bite for me. There are some vegetables that I always thought were supposed to eat raw. Radishes were one of those...until very recently when I threw some into a pot of soup just to see what would happen. Guess what? They were delicious! I've found that cooked radishes don't have that spicy bite that the raw vegetable does. So, I've been throwing radishes into a lot of my cooked dishes lately. Most recently I had a mish-mash of veggies in my refrigerator and decided to put them together to see how they would taste. They were very tasty and this combo will go on my list of favorites. If you've never tried to cook your radishes, you're in for a treat!

 

 

 

 

Sautéed Broccoli, Radishes and Scallions

2 C chopped broccoli

1 bunch of radishes chunked (about 1 C)

1 bunch of scallions/green onions sliced into 1/2 inch chunks

1/2 C Water or broth

2 T Coconut oil

2 t toasted sesame oil

salt and pepper to taste

 

Melt coconut oil in a skillet. Lightly sauté the broccoli and radishes until they are slightly browned. Add Water or broth and scallions to pan, cover and cook for about 3 minutes. Remove lid and let liquid evaporate, add toasted sesame oil, salt and pepper and toss to coat. Serve warm.

 



Pumpkin Cupcakes Made in the Box Oven

This past weekend my family went camping with a few other families, several of which also ate Paleo or similar. On this trip we cooked our food in a variety of ways. We baked coffee cake in the Dutch oven,  made pancakes over a camp stove, made omelets in zip lock bags in boiling water, roasted sweet potatoes and more in the campfire coals and baked chocolate chip muffins and pumpkin muffins in box ovens. Box ovens may be my favorite camp cooking method just because it seem amazing to me that you can make an oven that will reach baking temperature using only a cardboard box and aluminum foil. That's kind of crazy, really.

 

The pumpkin muffins were a big hit with the adults while the chocolate chip were the kids' favorite. I'm really psyched to try out more flavors in the box oven. Have any requests?

Box Oven Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 ½  C almond flour
1 small can pumpkin
1 ½  tsp. baking soda
¾  C honey
1 tsp. cloves
2 Tbs. cinnamon
2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. salt
6 eggs

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon batter into a lined muffin tin.

If making in a regular oven, Preheat oven to 350F. Bake muffins for about 30 minutes or until they are firm on the top when you press on them.

If making in a box oven, light 9 charcoal briquettes. Using the instructions here, place the muffin tin in the box oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until muffins are firm on top when you press on them. Keep in mind when using a box oven that every time you lift the box up, you will lose 25 degrees F from the oven and will need to add an additional 15 minutes to the cooking time. That's why the nifty window is so nice!

Cinnamon Coffee Cake in the Dutch Oven

The Girl's Scout troop went camping this past weekend. Their awesome leader wanted to give the girls exposure to multiple camping cooking techniques. Throughout the weekend they learned baking in a Dutch oven, baking in a box oven, roasting in foil over the fire, cooking omelets in zip lock bags in boiling water and cooking pancakes over a camp stove. I was in charge of the morning coffee cake cooked in a Dutch Oven and wanted to make it a tasty Paleo treat. I couldn't seem to find many Paleo camp cooking recipes using a Dutch oven, so I found a few conventional coffee cake recipes and adapted them to Paleo ingredients and the Dutch oven.

Although we made this cake using charcoal briquettes and campfire coals, you could use the same recipe in your oven at home. I didn't get too many good pictures of the results, but everyone seemed to love it and several came back for seconds.

Dutch Oven Paleo Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Cake
1 can of coconut milk
4 eggs
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp. vanilla
4 C almond meal or flour
1 C tapioca flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Cinnamon Ribbon

4 Tbs. Cinnamon
1/2 C melted coconut oil
1/4 C Honey
 

 

If making in a Camp setting: Spray Dutch oven with coconut oil spray or grease the pan with coconut oil. Mix all cake ingredients together in a large bowl then pour into the Dutch Oven and set aside. Mix all cinnamon ribbon ingredients together in a small bowl then drizzle over cake batter in Dutch oven. Light 6 charcoal briquettes and set Dutch oven on top of charcoal. Light 18 more briquettes and place on top of Dutch oven. Bake for about 30-40 minutes. Test for doneness with knife in center of cake. 

If making in a home oven: Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Mix cake ingredients, and pour into a deep pan or 2 round cake pans.  Mix cinnamon ribbon ingredients in a small bowl  then drizzle over cake batter in pan.  Bake 28-30 minutes. Test for doneness with knife in center of cake.